In Search of Lost Time
by saviorsofthecommonwealth
Summary: Deacon has been running from his past but the past just might set him free. Slow burn Deacon x FSole Survivor
1. Chapter 1

**Note:** This fic has been set up to follow other Fallout lore where Pre-war America is not as safe as the intro to Fallout 4 might lead you to believe. There will be mentions of the plague, the Ration Riots, Hot Summer, and anti-military movements. My SS lived her early years in Chicago and experiences the Ration Riots first hand. This fic will have typical in game violence etc. I plan on shoving as many literary references in as possible. Thanks for reading~

* * *

 _If she hadn't heard her name being called she'd never have walked towards the curtained window in the first place. White knuckles and sweaty palms held the shotgun Nate had bought her before leaving for Canada. The sharp rapping came from the window again. The light from the city outside was present even in the dead of night and silhouetted a large figure crouched on the fire escape. Using the end of the shotgun barrel she slowly drew back one side of the curtains and staring back at her through thick brows and blue eyes was the very man responsible for the gun now pointed at him._

 _"Nate what the hell," Nora demanded after wrenching the frosty window open. He climbed in setting a pack on the ground. A chilly wind followed in after him sending a shiver through Nora's body. Nate's shoulders were hunched forward. His hands were awkward half fists at his sides. The man who once stood confidently was a ghost. Nora stepped forward and rested her warm hand on his icy cheek gently turning his face to look at her. His bloodshot eyes were wary of findings hers. "Nate," she called softly._

 _His eyes finally made contact with hers briefly before he pulled her into a rough embrace. She tried to move her arms now pinned to more comfortably hug him back, but Nate only squeezed tighter. His face was buried into her hair taking in deep shaky breaths until he thickly said, "marry me Nora." It was more of a statement than a question._

* * *

The white paint lines radiating from the plus symbol were the cleanest things in his line of vision. Deacon wiped the sweat from the bridge of his nose that had been causing his sunglasses to slowly slide down. He had a report come in stating that this vault was a source of some synth activity, and yet the whole time he had been here not a single one had shown it's face.

Gingerly turning the page on his mostly preserved copy of Robert Musil's two volume work, he felt lucky to have found the second volume in the Capital Wasteland. "I only make fun of it because I love it," Ulrich said curtly. He finished the chapter and stood up to stretch.

Maybe the Institute had already gotten what they wanted from this place and left. The informant was fairly credible. They had reported a small team of chrome-domes entering and leaving the vault several times in the past month. He lit a cigarette and as if on cue he felt the rumbling under his feet as the metal vault doors parted. He grabbed his gun and watched the opening through the scope.

A woman in a blue vault suit numbered the same as the vault door appeared on the elevator platform. She coughed and shielded her eyes with one hand and carried a 10mm in the other. It was strange how clean she was. Her brunette hair shone vibrantly in the sun, nothing like the dull mess of most wastelanders. She even had on makeup. Her first couple steps were like watching a newborn radstag walk for the first time. She made her way down the hill and away from the vault.

Deacon quickly packed up and followed noting that the vault elevator was still up and he would be able to come back and enter on his own, but he was too curious to see how this new player worked out. This could have been the answer from the past he had been looking for.

* * *

Nora's head was spinning. Only moments had passed since she had seen the sky catch fire, silhouetting her husband and child. Her husband. Nate. She gripped his wedding band tighter into her palm until it hurt. She kept seeing the red bloom on his blue vault suit

She ran towards Sanctuary Hills. Was there anything left? The trees had been stripped bare and she didn't recognize any of the plant life around her. Her blood pounded in her ears and she ran down the street she lived on. Few of the pastel houses remained. Rusted paneling, broken mailboxes, and broken glass stabbed at the edges of her vision.

She saw their house. Mostly intact. She got to the threshold and yelled, "Codsworth?!" The reply in the form of silence was deafening. She stepped over the broken red door into the living room. "Codsworth," she screamed feeling it hurt her throat. The couch Nate had been so adamant about getting from his parents house was still there, overturned and stained. Tears filled her vision blurring the nightmare in front of her. She needed Nate so badly right now. He would know what to do. Where to start looking. She heard a familiar noise behind her; the sound of fans and a thruster whirring.

"As I live and breathe," said the Mr. Handy when he appeared in the doorway. "Miss Nora is that you?" She turned sharply, blinking away her tears.

"Codsworth?"

"It's… it's REALLY you mum!"

Nora jumped up and hugged the Mr. Handy, "Codsworth what is going on? Why is everything dead? Is anyone alive?"

"No mum. Where is sir?"

"Nate… he," she trailed off not wanting to say the words out loud. "They shot him Codsworth. The people who took Shaun. They shot him. Oh my god Codsworth they killed Nate and they took Shaun! You have to help me. Did you see anyone around here? From the direction of the vault?"

"Mum… these things you're saying. These… terrible things… I… I believe you need a distraction. Yes! A distraction, to calm this dire mood"

"Codsworth," she said placing her palm on the spherical body of the Mr. Handy unit, "I need you to listen. I need to find the people who killed Nate and took Shaun. Please… please tell me anything you know."

"It's worse than I though. Hmmm. You're suffering from… hunger-induced paranoia. Not eating properly for 200 years will do that, I'm afraid."

"Two… Two hundred years? What are you talking about 200 years, Codsworth!?"

"A bit over 210 actually, mum. Give or take a little for the Earth's rotation and some minor dings to the old chronometer. That means you're two centuries late for dinner," Codsworth laughed. "Perhaps I can whip you up a snack? You must be famished."

"Codsworth you're acting weird. What's going on? Are you alright?"

"I… I.." and with that the Mr. Handy broke, "Oh mum, it's been just horrible! Two centuries with no one to talk to, no one to serve."

* * *

Deacon crouched around the corner of the house and couldn't believe what he'd just heard. This vault dweller was a Pre-war relic. The genuine article. Even he couldn't have made this shit up. It explained her squeaky-clean appearance and why she was screaming for all the 'Wealth to hear. She had no idea of the dangers around her. The screaming. Her husband had been killed in front of her and her child stolen. He felt a pinch in his stomach and decided it was better to let this reunion continue on without him. He wanted in that vault to see the story for himself. You can't trust everyone he thought.

The vault was eerily quiet. His well practiced footfalls echoed like a Super Mutants in here. He found several Radroaches with bullet holes that matched her gun. She's got great aim he observed seeing each was a headshot.

His breath became visible in the stale air when he reached the cryo-chambers. Every single pod had a dead frozen body in it. It was more of a morgue now. The second chamber showed two unlatched pods. One was empty. The other housed a man inside with a bullet wound in his chest. His haircut and build were military, but his eyes seemed gentle. If it wasn't for the boutonniere of red Deacon could have sworn he was sleeping.

Deacon checked the terminals. One yielded what the real purpose of the vault had been: none of the residents knew they were going to be frozen. They were told they were climbing into decontamination pods. It seemed there had been a mutiny amongst the vault's employees against the overseer. Their posts and charges abandoned as they left the vault.

Not everyone had made it out. There were skeletons littered around the place with tattered vault suits and vault-tec lab coats. He nudged one out of the way with his foot to get to a terminal. It held information confirming the vault dweller's story. Nate was her husband and had entered the pod with an infant child named Shaun. Nora. Nora was her name and she was a lawyer.

"Curiouser and curiouser," Deacon whispered. It was time to return to the house and check up on his project.


	2. Chapter 2

Deacon approached the house, observing the robot off in the distance on the other side of the neighborhood gathering supplies. _At least she has some help_ he thought. He cautiously peeked through a window where a faint whimpering could be heard. Sitting on the ground with her forehead resting on a dingy blue crib Nora was crying. The little rocket mobile above her moved slowly from the ever present draft in the house. There was a book in her lap… large and square he could only make out the word "SPECIAL". She was fidgeting with two small gold objects in her hand. She sat up straight and took a sip of the purified water next to her. Her eyes and nose were swollen and red. That small pinching sensation returned to Deacon's stomach.

Codsworth returned with a sleeping bag and some moth eaten blankets. He had also managed to find some food. "Worry not mum. We are sure to find young Shaun. We will head to Concord tomorrow. I've seen people there before."

"Sure thing Codsworth," she replied quietly. She crawled into the sleeping bag and curled up with the book in her arms and closed her eyes.

Deacon made it back to his makeshift camp near the vault, leaving the Mr. Handy unit to watch over her until morning. He knew it was a terrible idea for them to head to Concord. The place was always run by one Raider group or another. No one was king of that hill for long.

As he sat and ate a can of Cram his thoughts drifted back to Nora. He knew what it was like to lose everything in a matter of hours. This first night was going to be terrible for her, but so would all of the consecutive nights. He thought of her husband in the cryopod. He looked like the sort who'd easily break a guy's nose in a bar, but choose to walk away instead. Something about Nate drew parallels with Deacon's past, yet here Deacon was and there Nate was… dead and unable to do anything for her. At least he didn't have to watch his wife die, then try to live with the fact he had failed to protect her.

 _Slow down Deacon. Don't need to swim in dangerous waters for no reason. Don't want to drown in whatever sleep you manage tonight._

It was pre dawn when Deacon sat up from his sleeping bag and cleared his camp. He had made the decision last night that he would follow her to Concord, and wherever else she stumbled through the Commonwealth. She had some ties to the Institute and he was going to find out what they were. The terminal near their pods had shown a manual override for Nate's pod, but hers had been opened remotely. Someone was pulling the proverbial strings from elsewhere.

When he got to the house he could hear a man's voice faintly coming from inside. He crept up carefully to see who this new person might be. In the ruins of the living room he saw Nora standing alone with the pip-boy lighting up the room when the voice stopped. She popped the holotape out then back in.

 _Oops, haha. Keep those little fingers away... Ah, there we go. Just say it, right there, right there, go ahead. Ah, yay! Hi honey, listen..._

Nora's head hung low and her hair obscured her face. Deacon knew this was a private moment. He needed to get out of here but any potential intel kept him rooted to the spot.

 _I don't think Shaun and I need to tell you how great of a mother you are. But, we're going to anyway. You are kind, and loving, and funny, that's right, and patient. So patient, patience of a saint as your mother used to say._

Nora shoulders shook and sharp sobs could be heard over the man's voice on the holotape. All he wanted to do was walk right into the house and lie. He wanted to tell her it was going to be ok. Instead Deacon headed off to his next camp by the Red Rocket truck stop to eat some breakfast. He no longer wanted to hear the conclusion of this message.

* * *

 _Look, with Shaun and us all being home together it's been an amazing year but even so I know our best days are yet to come. There will be changes sure, things we'll need to adjust to. I'll rejoin the civilian workforce, you'll shake the dust off your law degree. But everything we do no matter how hard, we do it for our family._ _Now say goodbye Shaun. Bye bye, say bye bye. Bye honey, we love you._

Nora took a deep steadying breath. _But everything we do no matter how hard, we do it for our family._ She let the line repeat in her head. She went to Shaun's room, or what was left of it and rolled up the sleeping bag with the blanket inside. She took the pack Codsworth had found and filled it with food, water, and ammo from a neighbor's root cellar. With her sleeping bag tied to the top, she set off with Codsworth to see what other horrors this world she had woken up to could offer, and hoped that somewhere and somehow Shaun was safe.

The pair approached the large iconic red rocket launching from the truck stop. A German Shepherd came bounding towards them barking playfully stopping just short of her. Nate had always wanted a dog and insisted they get one when Shaun was older.

"Hey there boy. Lost your owner?" Nora stooped down and let him sniff her hand. The dog licked the offering and took off in the direction of Concord. Stopping just before they might lose sight of him.

By the time they reached the edge of Concord they took a small break inside a boarded up house.

"What a good boy you are," Nora cooed at the dog. "He has such bright, intelligent eyes don't you think so Codsworth?"

Before he could reply gunfire broke out two blocks down from the house they were in. The dog whined.

"Let's get to the roof and have a look." Nora scurried up the stairs and easily jumped the gap between the two buildings. She was two buildings away from the history museum. There were two men shooting from the steps of the building while four people ran inside. One of the men was shot square in the chest and collapsed to the ground. The last man standing was in a duster and ran inside only to reappear on the balcony above to continue firing.

The group taking the offense looked dangerous. Their armor had spikes jutting out. Their movements made them look a little haphazard and wild. Despite the man's best efforts some of the group made it inside. Nora stood up to head towards the stairs that would take her back inside the building and down to the street. She wasn't all too sure what to do, but it seemed like they had unarmed people with them and needed help.

"Hey you! Up here on the balcony," the man yelled looking straight at Nora and her small party. "I've got a group of settlers inside! The Raiders are almost through the door! Grab that laser musket and help us! Please!"

"Reinforcements," yelled one of the Raiders below shooting a shot off at the building Nora was on.

* * *

 _Great this guy had just painted a massive target on this woman who had not even spent a full day in the Commonwealth_ , Deacon huffed adjusting his sniper rifle from his perch.

He saw her reach the street. The Mr. Handy cut into the Raider that had gotten too close with a pool cue. The dog had gone for his ankle and pulled him down. Nora was taking cover behind a sandbag wall. The Mr. Handy was calling out where the Raiders were coming from.

 _At least she knew to not run out into the open during a firefight._

He had been grimacing the whole way to Concord when their little trio had been walking and talking so out in the open.

Deacon let out a breath and pulled the trigger. The bullet buried itself in brick after making a path through a Raider trying to enter the building. Nora unloaded three rounds into another Raiders face. She ducked back down for cover and reloaded. He picked off two more, careful to fire when the man on the balcony did. Those laser musket blasts where a racket in this quieter corner of the Commonwealth. Codsworth took down another with his saw blade. Deacon looked back at Nora just in time to see another Raider land a hit to the side of her head. She let off two rounds which hit her assailant in the stomach. Deacon shot the Raider in the head just to be sure. She got up quickly and ran for the laser musket. She cranked it twice and carefully opened the door letting the Mr. Handy peek in first with an eye stem. Deacon only saw three Raiders make it into the museum. She seemed more capable than he had initially thought. Not the meek Pre-war civilian he thought he was following.

He saw her step out onto the balcony with the man in the militia hat. There were more Raiders coming now. She ducked back in as a shot fired in their direction. Deacon switched buildings and picked one off when the man came back out.

There was some sort of noise coming from the roof. Deacon turned to see someone in power armor ripping the minigun off a crashed Vertibird. The man in the duster continued to fire off his laser musket at the oncoming Raiders. The person in the power armor dropped down from the roof and let their minigun fly. The Mr. Handy followed. Deacon didn't want to believe that Nora was in that suit, but the Mr. Handy stuck too close suggesting otherwise. _She might be an antique, but she was no fine china_ , Deacon thought shaking his head. The last Raider was running away when the explosion happened.


	3. Chapter 3

_Nate had been going over his speech in the mirror for the banquet while he trimmed his facial hair. Nora knew he'd been stressed since the invitation arrived a month prior. He was always asking her opinion on it._

" _Doesn't that seem too halting to you? Maybe I shouldn't repeat that word. Am I using it too much already?"_

 _She walked up behind him and wrapped her arms around his sturdy waist. "You're gonna knock them dead at the Veteran's Hall today," she said kissing the side of his neck._

" _Hopefully I won't be knocking them dead with boredom," Nate replied bringing her around for a kiss._

" _Noooo," Nora squealed as Nate got shaving cream all over her face._

" _Miss Nora your coffee is ready," Codsworth called from the kitchen._

 _Nora squirmed away and wiped her face off on a towel but didn't escape the bathroom before Nate planted a quick smack on her butt. She smiled wagging her finger, "you're asking for it bud."_

 _Shaun must have possessed cosmic knowledge, because he started to cry as Nora brought the cup to her lips. With a sigh she set the coffee back down. Nate called from the bathroom as she walked past, "I'll be right there honey."_

 _She found Shaun's teddy bear on the ground. "How did you get all the way down here?" Shaun giggled, happy that the bear had returned from his great adventure._

" _My boy isn't giving his mother any trouble, is he?"_

" _He's definitely giving Mr. Bear trouble. Aren't you?"_

 _Shaun giggled and Nora gave his mobile a gentle spin._

" _That's my boy. On his best behavior, just like his dad." Nora turned and gave Nate a sly smile. "Well, most of the time anyway."_

" _Mum! Sir! You should come and see this," Codsworth called from the living room._

" _Codsworth. What's wrong," Nate called raising his eyebrows at his wife. Nora headed to the living room. It was most likely the neighbors arguing out in the street again about who took who's coupons._

" _Followed by… yes, followed by flashes. Blinding flashes. Sounds of explosions… we're… We're trying to get confirmation," the reporter stated. Nora was confused by the reporters haphazard looking state. Had there been an explosion? She thought about the Boston Militia and wondered if they had been found out. She had left them after finding out she was pregnant. A lot of her friends had remained in the anti-military group._

 _Nate walked into the front room with Shaun in his arms blowing soft raspberries._

" _We do have… coming in… confirmed reports. I repeat, confirmed reports of nuclear detonations in New York and Pennsylvania… My God," and with that the reporter buried his hands in his face._

" _We've got to get to the vault," Nora said and then more loudly, "Nate we need to get to the vault now!"_

 _Everyone in Sanctuary Hills was flooding into the streets. Some were trying to drag luggage, some were trying to get their cars through the family clogged streets._

 _Nora reached the fence gates around the vault first. She crushed herself up against the guard in front of the mass of people forming around the entrance. "Let us in! We are on the list! We signed up last week. Nate and Nora! We are on the list."_

" _This way head in," said the guard pushing them through. Nate and Nora made it on to the platform as the bomb hit._

 _The sky went a bright orange white and the cloud formed in the same cartoonish mushroom shape it took in all those Vault-Tec commercials. The guards started yelling to get them down and the vault elevator jerked as it began descending._

 _Nora barely heard the screaming. It registered as more of a white noise in her ears. The blinding flash and change in color of the sky was what reached into her depths. Everything in her being left and only numbness was found in its wake. Her eyes left the ruined sky and fell on the two men in her life._ Is this going to be my last memory of them, _she wondered. The blast hit as the doors closed above them plunging them into darkness._

* * *

Nora heard the explosion and the metal doors slamming back down on the concrete. She turned in the power armor in time to see a creature climbing out of the sewer entrance. Mama Murphy's words ringing in her mind, _Claws and teeth and horns. The very face of death itself._

She ran into the nearest store front to get out of view. It was massive. Animals… or beasts like that didn't exist. Then came the awful sound that sunk into Nora's very bones. It was utterly predatory. It picked up the last Raider that had been trying to get away and tossed them down the length of the street. The body went limp, skipping off the pavement like a stone over water. The Raider landed near the door Nora had just ducked through in a heap. She had never seen that happen to a body before. It was like watching the bomb detonate all over again. That same void entered her. It was like watching that same nuclear destruction ruin the world again. This was the world she had woken up in.

Preston was the man she had just met, but had quickly conveyed to her in their brief encounter that he was the sort who would always lay his life down to save those around him. He was part of a group called the Minutemen and he was doing his damndest to save the settlers in that building with him. It was the blast of his laser musket firing that brought Nora back. Nora swung out of the building and let the minigun loose. The face of death looked right at her. It was just as angry and hateful as the bomb had been. Despite the countless bullets it began bounding towards her. It was half way down the street when she started firing the gun into the car closest to her left. Hoping. Praying.

Preston fired off shot after shot. The car caught fire and she just kept firing. When the beast was almost level with the vehicle, close enough that it might soon skip Nora across Concord like that last Raider, the vehicle exploded. The blast threw her back, and the last thing she saw was a man standing on top of a building further down the street. He was looking in her direction with his hands comically pressed to the sides of his head.

* * *

Deacon watched the progression of people as they made their way back to Sanctuary Hills. They made an odd party. The man in the coveralls and the man in the duster had pulled Nora from the power armor suit while the Deathclaw laid lifeless in the street. Nora was being carried on a makeshift cot. The dog and Codsworth followed on either side. Deacon wasn't sure if he considered her to be lucky, not everyone could kill a Deathclaw fresh from the vault. Not everyone needed to.

He stayed around for another day just to watch and make sure she came back to the waking world. He got close enough in the mean time to learn everyone's names. Preston was a Minuteman which worried Deacon to no end. The idea of the Minutemen sounded great sure, but you give small men power and sometimes you'll pay for it. The man with coveralls was Sturges. He quickly set to work fixing up one of the houses for everyone to shelter in. Deacon mused that he needed to pick up a pair of coveralls soon. They made a person seem like a fixer… a real charming handyman. The old woman, Mama Murphy, was a chems addict who kept talking about having 'the Sight', and the last two were a couple. Jun and Marcy Long. The husband was clearly traumatized and it had rendered him useless. The wife on the other hand seemed to make it her goal to be a thorn in everyone's side.

After she woke up Deacon decided it was time to return to his original job and put this one on the backburner. He overheard talk of them trying to fortify the place. That should buy him some time. He set off to check on another agent in the field and pick up a dead drop in Concord now that it was clear. The dead drop was empty and the agent had disappeared. Everything had gone particularly quiet in the field as of late. It was time for him to get back to HQ, scope out what sort of parties he had missed.


	4. Chapter 4

_Nora had graduated High School when the Ration Riots had started in Chicago. The entirety of the Midwest was in revolt. Most families were starving and while a small few were getting by, it quickly became a class issue. You could be walking down the street on the way home or to your job when the street became a battlefield. A fight between the police and people looting, or a small mob breaking into a nice house and dragging out the occupants. Eventually the police would be replaced with soldiers in power armor. That was when her father, the cop, decided to call in a favor with a detective he had worked with on and off. The detective was working on a case in Boston and clued them in on a small house that had just been put on the market. He even secured them safe passage there._

 _Nora had already been applying to colleges out there when they got the confirmation of the move. She remembered that first summer there fondly. It was an exciting place to be. It seemed mostly untouched by the issues out west. People talked about the plague like it was happening overseas. Her mom secured a job at CIT and her father quickly got work at the precinct. She loved hanging around, reading in the cafes around College Square. The whole place felt so academic and progressive._

 _She had always been the child with her head stuck in a book. She was also the kid getting into fights. She had been in third grade when she got in her first fight. A boy larger than her had been pushing a small girl and stealing her pencils. He'd been pulling on the girl's hair and managed to take a sizeable chunk of it when little Nora decided enough was enough. She closed her book and ran up behind the boy kicking him in the back of the knee. He went down and she brought the book down on his head. He had needed five other little girl started crying and ran to get the teacher. Nora was suspended._

 _She decided to work with some volunteer groups when she moved to Boston. Battered women's shelters, soup kitchens, the like. That was how she met Nate. He believed most people did bad things because they didn't feel like they had any other choice. His eyes would light up and his hands were in constant motion when the topic came up. Nate was the kinder, softer soul of the pair._

 _Nate walked her home after they left whatever shelter they both "happened" to be volunteering at that week. It was on one of these nights at the door to her house he asked Nora on a date. She'd been waiting for it. Two weeks prior she had overheard him asking her father for permission to do so. Her father had curtly informed Nate he was the wrong person to ask, but when he came in the house mentioning how he liked "that Nate boy" she was always with she knew the right impression had been made._

 _They went to see a film at the Brattle Theatre in College Square. Nate had brought Nora a copy of_ Journey to the End of Night _by Louis-Ferdinand Celine which she had mentioned wanting in one of their earliest conversations. As usual a festival was going on in College Square and the pair opted to have their picture taken by a photobooth bot. Nate bought a copy for each of them._

 _Nora was swept up in him. Even her persistently gruff cop father loved Nate swearing he hadn't even bothered running a background check on this one. It was that summer when Nora met Nate that she decided she would turn over a new leaf. She would fly straight and narrow. She would become the kinder soul. She would use her wits and words over her fists._

* * *

Nora filled her pack with food, water, stimpacks, and ammo. A couple personal items made it in as well. Codsworth had taken extra care to save some special items for his masters if they returned. The holotape from Nate and a copy of _Journey to the End of Night_ were rolled in a towel. Inside the book was a photo of them on their first date and her movie ticket. Nate also owned a copy of each but they stayed tucked away in his wallet. She slipped both of their wedding bands on a strip of leather and tucked them away inside her vault suit.

It was time to head out and see what information she could find about Shaun's kidnappers. She looked back over Sanctuary Hills, the place that had once been their home before the war. The people she saved in Concord lived there now. Sturges had insisted that it could be her home too. She'd done what she could to help them. A makeshift wall surrounded the houses and Preston frequently could be found patrolling them. They'd gotten a lot done in two weeks time. Mama Murphy was the first to suggest that she make her way to a place called Diamond City in Boston. She could find the information she needed there.

Nora said her goodbyes and headed out with only Dogmeat in tow. She wanted to bring Codsworth along, but Preston warned her that the road to Diamond City would be dangerous and she'd need to travel unnoticed.

Sturges and Preston filled her in on the general wildlife found in the new Commonwealth. There were mutated bears, rats, dogs, flies, deer, and even people. Worst of all was the Deathclaw. The very thing she'd gone up against in Concord. Apparently not common, if you could avoid a fight with them you should. Sturges had been really helpful in retrieving the hide and showing her how to make leather. They'd made some modified leather armor, producing something that was bullet proof and resistant to energy blasts. Preston helped with the hunting rifle they had looted off a Raider, adding a suppressor to it. She was as ready as she would ever be.

* * *

Deacon made it back to Sanctuary Hills and found Nora was no longer there. He changed into a smelly pair of road leathers. He threw some knee pads and a metal chest piece on to toughen up the look.

He practiced his gravely voice and said, "I am Eugene Wrayburn. People call me Wrayburn because anyone who calls me Eugene doesn't live." He furrowed his brow mor. "I'm a caravan worker and I've been seperated from my group in the last Raider attack." Hemingway and Dickens' character names always worked. Most wastelanders couldn't read or didn't have the time. With Eugene Wrayburn firmly in his thoughts he headed into Sanctuary approaching the man he knew as Preston.

"Hold it right there," Preston called out raising his musket higher aiming at the man with sunglasses approaching him. "What is your business here?"

"I'm a caravan guard and I got separated from the others during a raider attack. A place called Sanctuary Highs was supposed to be our destination. I am looking for directions there." Deacon knew giving a similar name would humanize him, mistakes made people out to be harmless. Preston was the sort who would always help his fellow Wastelander if thought they were good natured.

"Well this is Sanctuary Hills, but we haven't had any caravans through recently," replied Preston lowering his gun and walking towards the caravan guard. "I'm Preston Garvey, with the Minutemen."

Deacon nodded frowning somewhat and saying, "I'm Eugene Wrayburn, but people call me Wrayburn. Have you seen any caravans in the area? One of our guards ran into a woman during the night watch in a vault suit who said we should try trading at a place called Sanctuary. Then we went right into a group of Raiders in Concord."

"Damn," said Preston, "that must have been Nora. She left around two days ago. She was talking about this place here. We haven't gotten any caravans though. Would you want to stay here for a little while and see if your caravan shows up? I could try to call in some Minutemen and have them look through the area? In the meantime we could always use help with the garden or mending some walls."

Deacon needed to back out. He hadn't taken into account the man offering help to this degree or expecting help in return. He still needed more intel on where Nora was heading. "If you don't mind I'll just stay long enough to eat some food then head back to where we were attacked. See if I can find any signs there I might have missed in the dark."

"Not a problem. If you head to that third house there is a cooking station and some beds. I'll go let the other residents know you're here." Just like that Preston took off ahead of him.

Deacon made his way to the cooking station and sat down at a table nearby pulling out some radstag jerky and taking in his surroundings. _Looks like she left her robot butler and took the mutt._ He heard shuffling footsteps behind him. The old woman sat next to him.

"Caravan worker hey? Got any chems on ya kid," she said in her raspy voice, "if you do I can maybe help you with the Sight. It's my gift."

"Sorry all the goods were with my group," he shifted in his seat. Something about this woman was annoying and unsettling.

"You're the man with shifting faces. Never wants to be anyone."

 _Ok, that was definitely unsettling_ but still vague enough that he wrote it off as the usual mystic bullshit. Deacon took a large bite of the jerky and spoke with his mouth full, "who wants to be anyone these days?"

"If you keep running from your past kid you won't be able to receive its gift. She's the decider of the Commonwealth. You'll see," and with that she got up and shuffled off. Deacon was sitting with his mouth open full of food.

 _Everyone is running from some sort of past_ he told himself. He finished his meal and headed for Preston. He needed to get out of here and start trailing Nora. She had a full two days of travel on him.

"You said that vault dweller left recently? I hope she was heading somewhere close because I have to be honest she looks like she hasn't ever been in the 'Wealth," Deacon said gruffly. Preston seemed a little hesitant so Deacon pushed more.

"I have to be frank with you fella. You seem like the nice sort, but I can't believe you let her leave all on her own when she clearly ain't got a clue. I hope you suggested a safe road for her travel? If I find my caravan I can send my sister Liz to guide her the rest of the way. Give her an extra gun wherever she's headed."

Preston shifted from foot to foot uncomfortably, "well… I mean I suggested the safest road I know to get to Diamond City."

Deacon raised his eyebrows, "she's headin to Diamond City with only that mutt?"

Preston clearly looked worried, "let me show you the route on a map. Do you think Liz could catch up to her?"

"She is the fastest woman in the 'Wealth. She also doesn't like women running around alone. It's how our mom went. If I find her I'll send her to catch up with that vault woman." Preston let the caravan guard go on his way after he marked out the route.


End file.
